Ben Lomond, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ben Lomond, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Ben Lomond lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Ben Lomond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ben Lomond — the short answer
Ben Lomond, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- Sevier County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- Sevier County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- Sevier County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Sevier County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Ben Lomond's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ben Lomond's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ben Lomond
Each reading below is measured for Ben Lomond itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBen Lomond runs about 247 days between hard freezes (read from Sevier County, the closest normal to Ben Lomond) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBen Lomond sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Ben Lomond is in
Ben Lomond sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ben Lomond's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sevier County.
What Grows in Ben Lomond
Every plant below cleared Ben Lomond's own zone 8a and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ben Lomond?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Ben Lomond
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ben Lomond. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 11S29W08CAD1Nitrate · 2600 ft
- MIZE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 11S29W06BAA1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 11S29W07BAA1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 11S29W07BBD1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 11S29W07DCC1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 11S29W18BDB1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 11S30W01DAD1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 11S30W12DAA1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 11S29W20BAA2Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 11S29W20BAA1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 11S29W18ABA1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ben Lomond's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Ben Lomond.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Ben Lomond
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ben Lomond
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ben Lomond
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ben Lomond, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 84 sites within ~10 miles of Ben Lomond. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ben Lomond
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ben Lomond average
Your land is one point inside Ben Lomond
Everything above resolves to Ben Lomond as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sevier County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Ben Lomond Average
Ben Lomond Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ben Lomond
- ●One soil character for all of Ben Lomond
- ●Frost dates read at Ben Lomond's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ben Lomond's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ben Lomond
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ben Lomond, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ben Lomond averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ben Lomond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ben Lomond average
How we know this about Ben Lomond
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Sevier County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Ben Lomond
When does frost risk typically end in Ben Lomond?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ben Lomond typically lands around Mar 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 5.
When is the first frost in Ben Lomond?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ben Lomond typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ben Lomond?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ben Lomond sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 3, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ben Lomond?
The federal record around Ben Lomond shows 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (84), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ben Lomond?
From about Oct 18 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ben Lomond's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ben Lomond's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Ben Lomond’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ben Lomond's own scale — the 2,507 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ben Lomond's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ben Lomond, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ben Lomond's boundary and the 2,507 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ben Lomond's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ben Lomond has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sevier County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ben Lomond's 2,507 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sevier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sevier County
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sevier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ben Lomond's 2,507 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ben Lomond you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,507 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Ben Lomond-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasBen Lomond sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides